People who rent their homes, or don’t have enough money to make major upgrades to their homes, have for many years been left out of a major shift in heating and cooling technology that can improve efficiency, save money and be better for the global climate: heat pumps.

Heating and cooling buildings consumes 35% of all the energy ...Read more

I met Mohammad in 2004 in Baghdad when we were both in our early 20s. I was an American soldier, and he was a local interpreter for my platoon during our 1-year deployment. Mohammad’s job was dangerous because Iraqis who worked with the Americans were targeted by insurgent forces.

So when I didn’t hear from him for a couple of ...Read more

Late in her pregnancy in the fall of 2025, Jacqueline, a Guatemalan immigrant living in North Florida, began planning for labor alone.

After her husband was detained and deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, she stopped leaving her home except when absolutely necessary. Even routine prenatal visits felt risky, she told the ...Read more

Pause for a moment and listen. What do you hear? Chances are, somewhere in the background, is the ever-present hum of a road.

More than 4.2 million miles of public roads crisscross the lower 48 states – enough to reach the Moon and back almost nine times. This vast network of roads spiderwebs its way across the contiguous U.S., ...Read more

Lately, much of the news about the Arctic has been bleak. The far north is warming three to four times faster than the rest of the planet. Arctic climate change – manifesting in sea ice loss, permafrost thaw and coastal erosion, among other phenomena – is already causing serious problems for Arctic residents, ecosystems and the rest of ...Read more

The U.S. and Iran said they reached an interim peace agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and move further toward ending a 15-week war that’s wrought chaos across the Middle East and reverberated through the global economy.

The development caused equities and bonds to jump at the start of the trading week, while oil and natural gas prices...Read more

Ukraine said a historic UNESCO-protected Orthodox cathedral in Kyiv was hit in the latest Russian drone and missile strike early on Monday, hours after Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump held a phone call.

The barrage killed five people and injured more than 30 in Kyiv as it set apartment buildings in several parts of the city ablaze, according to...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — The National Hurricane Center on Monday increase its forecast chances a system could move into the Gulf and develop into the season’s first tropical depression or storm.

As of the NHC’s 8 a.m. tropical outlook, the trough of low pressure was inland over northeastern Mexico producing disorganized shower and thunderstorm ...Read more

MIAMI — Sarah Kellen, a longtime personal assistant to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, has disclosed for the first time that Epstein’s preferential treatment at the Palm Beach County jail may have been the result of him paying off Palm Beach sheriff’s deputies.

Kellen, during her interview with the House Oversight Committee last month, ...Read more

WASHINGTON — John Thune is rubbing his jaw, one of his telltale signs he’s tired.

What should’ve been a week of celebration after muscling through his party’s second budget reconciliation package as Senate majority leader — nearly a year and a half into his tenure — was instead spent navigating hurdles set by the other end of ...Read more

It was the day after the senior pranks when a Kendall County, Illinois, teenager and his friends were laughing about the annual tradition in their English class.

That year, all in good fun, Jackson Leggett said some of the seniors at Newark Community High School had toilet-papered the principal’s house and parked speed boats at the school. ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- In late April, Joshua Good got a call from a parent at Ephrata Mennonite School: Two of their children had been diagnosed with measles.

Good, who heads the private religious school in Lancaster County, knew he had to act quickly to prevent further spread of the highly contagious disease. But he was not particularly surprised ...Read more

The looming impact of federal Medicaid cuts has reignited a long-simmering, costly battle between California’s medical industry and one of its largest health worker unions.

SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, with approximately 120,000 members, has put forward two ballot initiatives to cap the pay of medical executives and require community ...Read more

WEATHERFORD, Texas -- Worry crept in after midnight for Vincent Tijerina. His teenage son Vincent Jr., a sophomore at Weatherford High School, hadn’t returned home Friday evening after he spent time with Michelle “Shelly” Colliflower, who was a freshman.

It was March 25, 1983.

Tijerina drove through the rain all night around Weatherford,...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Mario remembers his shift at Harbor Blvd Car Wash on that clear August day. He was in the conveyorized tunnel dealing with an equipment issue when he heard screams.

In a panic, he ran and hid in a dark bathroom stall. Outside, he listened to his co-worker scuffle with a masked man until he heard, "OK, you've got me." Then ...Read more

The plane that crashed Sunday at Butler Memorial Airport, killing 11 skydivers and a pilot, did not appear to be overloaded or too old to be used for such activities, a former DOT inspector general told The Star.

“As planes that are used for skydiving go, so often what you find is that they’re working with very old planes,” said Mary ...Read more

At least 29 tornadoes ripped across Illinois and northwest Indiana last week, according to preliminary reports from the National Weather Service. As residents of parts of these states were recovering and surveying the damage from a destructive derecho that swept through Wednesday night with up to 80 mph winds, they were hit again less than 24 ...Read more

The U.S. and Iran said they reached an interim agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, halting a war that killed thousands of people and setting the stage for 60 days of negotiations on the fate of the country’s nuclear program.

Officials from the two countries will meet in Switzerland on June 19 to formally sign the agreement, a decision ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A plane crash at Butler Memorial Airport on Sunday killed 12 people, including a pilot and 11 skydivers, according to Bates County authorities.

The crash happened during takeoff and was reported about 11:27 a.m., Bates County Sheriff Chad Anderson said in a news conference Sunday afternoon. The plane was a locally-based, ...Read more

President Xi Jinping is shifting tactics in his campaign to pressure Taiwan, ramping up diplomatic isolation of the island while dialing down provocative displays of military aggression.

Taiwan recorded a daily average of five Chinese war planes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s buffer line with China through May this year — half the number ...Read more